Take our Generalized Anxiety Disorder Test

Find a therapist to overcome anxiety

Social anxiety is worry about what others think of you.

Social anxiety is composed of both thoughts and physical sensations, which are interlinked.

Bracing against social anxiety can create feedback loops that may make it worse.

When we feel ourselves getting socially anxious, our knee-jerk reaction is often to try to avoid it. But if we welcome it in, the effect can be quite different from what we expect.

What Is Social Anxiety?

Most people have felt socially anxious at one time or another. Think about what’s going through your mind before giving a speech, during an important job interview, or, really, any situation where you worry about what others might think of you.

In addition to—and indeed connected to—these in-the-moment thoughts, there are physical sensations: butterflies in the stomach, trembling, or a dry mouth, to name but a few. When I interviewed socially anxious women as part of my research (Masters, 2024), many spoke about blushing and sweating (Farah*), while others described feeling nauseous (Daniella).

Mind, Body, and Feedback Loops

It might be tempting to think of social anxiety as having mental and physical aspects, and it’s likely so difficult to get away from this because we don’t really have a word—in common usage, at least—that conveys that we’re talking about the whole self.

Yet, thinking about the mental and the physical as existing independently might not be that helpful (despite what mind-body dualist philosopher Descartes would have us believe!), especially in this context. Another woman I interviewed, Amy, was herself pretty critical of the notion that the mind and body are distinct,........

© Psychology Today